


A mind is a terrible thing to lose

by detectivejigsaw



Series: Twangst Stories [25]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Before and after Stan loses his memories, Dipper gets mad, Episode: s02e20 Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls, Gen, Guilty Ford Pines, Hurt/Comfort, I like torturing Ford way too much, Platonic Cuddling, Sorry Not Sorry, Stan Pines Has Issues, Stan Pines Has Low Self-Esteem, Uncle-Nephew Relationship, Weirdmageddon, drabble-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22774627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detectivejigsaw/pseuds/detectivejigsaw
Summary: Moments before and after THAT moment in Weirdmageddon-you all probably know the one I'm talking about.Therefore, lots of angst involved.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines, Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Mabel Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Twangst Stories [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1323026
Comments: 18
Kudos: 185





	1. Making the choice

**Author's Note:**

> I know many people have written their ideas for how this happened already, but I wanted to put in my two cents' worth. It's like it's a rite of passage for Gravity Falls fanfic writers or something.

“What other choice do we have?”

For a moment there was silence between the two old men.

Then Stan looked at his twin sharply. “Tell me somethin’, Poindexter. Have you ever made a deal with the triangle that _didn’t_ end with ya bein’ screwed over one way or another?”

Ford blinked. “Well-no, but-”

“Yeah, but nothin’. I’m not doin’ that.” With that, he began shrugging out of his suit jacket, and then untying his tie after he shrugged out of the sleeves and let it drop to the floor.

Ford’s expression was a comical depiction of disbelief: eyes popping, mouth hanging open, eyebrows up in his bangs. After a second, though, he remembered how to use his mouth.

“Stanley, what are you-have you gone mad?!”

“Probably.” Stan pulled his tie off, and began unbuttoning his shirt. “I’m gonna need your sweater.” He looked down at their respective pants. “...Both black, so he might not notice if they’re the same, but I’ll need your boots too.”

At which point Ford finally caught up with his brother’s thought processes. “...You can’t be serious.”

“Watch me.” The younger twin held out his clothes. “We don’t have much time, hurry up!”

“Stanley, you don’t understand! If I use the memory gun on you, you’ll be-!”

“And Bill will be gone forever, and the kids won’t have ta grow up in this _hellhole_!” With his free hand Stan gestured at the chaos of the world around them. “It’s _worth_ it, Stanford!”

Ford looked like he’d been poleaxed. “Stan…”

“It’ll fix everything,” Stan insisted. Ford feared that there was an unspoken, _And you were gonna kick me out at the end of the summer anyway, so it’s not like I’ve got anything ta lose_ at the end of that sentence.

But he finally gave in to his brother’s impatient glare and removed his coat and sweater, handing them over and taking Stan’s clothes. Then he silently exchanged their shoes and put on Stan’s fez, while Stan fluffed up his hair and worked on changing his voice to match Ford’s.

“Heh, this is gonna be like that time when we tried ta fool Ma so you wouldn’t haveta go ta boxing,” he said with a gruff laugh, clearly hoping to pretend that his hands weren’t trembling a little as he pulled on Ford’s gloves (stuffing the extra finger holes with pieces of wadded-up tissue that had been in his pocket). Then he admitted more sheepishly, “...Course, we better hope Bill’s less perceptive than she was. From what I’ve seen, though, he’s gonna be too busy gloating about ya ‘giving in’ ta notice much.”

Ford didn’t say a word. His mouth started to open as they grabbed onto the bars of their cage again, but then Bill was back, with the kids clutched in one hand, and there was no time for him to say what he’d been thinking.

 _It’s not worth_ you _, Stanley._


	2. A minor eruption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now here's some post-Weirdmageddon drama.

Grunkle Stan wasn’t gone.

He wasn’t completely back... but he was there. He’d been found again.

The despair that had enveloped the family in the forest began dissipating as they laughed over Mabel’s eccentric scrapbook entries.

After a while Stan, Mabel and Soos dozed off, all relaxed against each other and drooling shamelessly.

Dipper, exhausted as he was, wasn’t ready to join them just yet. Gingerly he slipped free of the armchair, and began making his way through the debris towards the kitchen.

“Dipper? Where are you going?”

The boy froze up at the sound of his other uncle’s voice-and was startled by the feeling of his fists inadvertently clenching. Quickly he opened them and said, keeping his voice low, “Just gonna see if we have anything salvageable to eat.”

He went on into the kitchen, and tried to pull the door closed behind him-except that only half the door was still there. Dipper sighed, and got a chair to help him climb onto the counter and begin searching the cupboards.

Nothing...nothing...a few cans of partially eaten brown meat (ugh)... and nothing.

Dipper forgot about eating and went out to sit on the front porch.

Ow, everything hurt. He rubbed his sore arm, and wondered if the hospital was open-if so, it was probably crowded with everyone else in town. Soos had said that as far as he knew, they were all still alive, but his primary interest had been finding the Pines family as soon as the chaos ended so he didn’t know for sure-

Ford stepped outside, looking far less stiff and straight-backed than normal, and joined Dipper on the sofa. And without warning, Dipper looked up at him and asked, “How could you?”

* * *

His tone was more devoid of awe than it had ever been when he was addressing his idol before. Ford froze, breath hitching, and stared down at him. Dipper continued, voice rising a little, “How could you do that to him?!”

Logically, Dipper knew why, of course. The metal plate in Ford’s head meant that they couldn’t erase Bill out of it, so Stan was the best choice for that course of action. But to be able to use the memory gun on your own twin, and basically destroy them-he could never imagine doing that to Mabel, no matter how messed up things might become between them.

Ford let out a choked sound, and his shoulders drooped even more. “It was our only option left, Dipper-”

Something exploded in the boy’s brain, and he leaped to his feet.

“IT WOULDN’T HAVE _BEEN_ OUR ONLY OPTION IF YOU HADN’T TRIED TO CORRECT HIM ON HIS STUPID GRAMMAR!”

It had been a rough indeterminate amount of time for Dipper recently. He’d spent three days (sort of, since time didn’t really exist during Weirdmageddon) constantly fleeing for his life and hiding from everything, nearly lost his sister to an evil bubble, gone through the entire emotional spectrum several times over, and been forced to watch his family and friends almost be destroyed by a giant Dorito in a top hat. All his pent-up anger and hurt wanted someone to blame for all that, and it had just found a perfect target.

“YOU COULDN’T STOP FIGHTING WITH HIM EVEN THOUGH THE WHOLE _WORLD_ WAS AT STAKE!” Dipper couldn’t remember the last time he’d yelled at someone like this, waving his arms in the air and just ranting every angry thought that came into his head like an ugly tidal wave. He was surprised the others hadn’t come out to investigate the noise; maybe they were so tired they were sleeping through it. “YOU JUST KEPT HURTING EACH OTHER, OVER AND OVER, AND NOW GRUNKLE STAN BARELY REMEMBERS ANYTHING ABOUT WHO HE IS BECAUSE YOU-”

The tirade was brought to a halt by the most unlikely sound: a small, quickly drawn-in inhale through the nostrils; specifically, a sniffle.

And when he looked at Grunkle Ford again, he was horrified to see silent tears spilling down his face.

It was the second time Dipper had ever seen Ford cry.

The first time had been when he was holding Stan, but all he’d really seen of that were his uncle’s trembling shoulders, and when he finally pulled back there’d been damp trails on his face and on Stan’s (technically his) coat. Seeing it happening right in front of him, though, was more than a little frightening.

“No, Grunkle Ford, I-I didn’t mean it-!”

“You’re not wrong.”

His uncle was holding himself, huddling into his trenchcoat and burying his fingers in the sleeves, and he was still crying.

“No, I’m sorry!” Dipper climbed back onto the sofa and, unsure of what else to do, began digging around in his vest pockets in the futile hope that he might have some tissues. “I didn’t mean what I said!”

“You _did_ mean it, Dipper,” Ford corrected him softly. “People who are angry are more likely to be honest about their feelings.”

“But it wasn’t fair to you!” Dipper finally found a scrap of cloth that seemed relatively clean-he wasn’t sure where it had come from, but decided not to worry about it for now-and offered it to him. Ford looked at the cloth in confusion for a moment, then took it and used it to rub under his eyes and clean his glasses. “This wasn’t _all_ your fault-Grunkle Stan could’ve calmed down, or I could’ve not fought with Mabel, or a lot of other things could’ve happened instead to fix all this.”

“But a great deal of it _is_ my fault-specifically, everything that happened to Stanley because I trusted Bill.” His hands shook, and he balled the cloth into one of them in a tight fist.

Dipper wasn’t sure what he should do...until at last he decided to act on his instincts, Mabel style. He climbed into his uncle’s lap, and hugged him gently around the middle.

* * *

When they had both calmed down somewhat, Dipper murmured, “...I think I need to go back to Piedmont with Mabel. I’m sorry, I know you really wanted me to stay, but-”

Ford shook his head. “That is completely fine, Dipper. I wouldn’t want to be taught by myself either.”

“No, I wasn’t-I was thinking maybe when I’m a little older, like after we finish high school and Mabel’s gone off to some fancy art school in New York or something-” both of them laughed- “then we could talk about that apprenticeship again...but I don’t want to be separated from her for the rest of our teenagehood.”

Ford nodded thoughtfully, and leaned back against the sofa. After a moment he said, “You’re a wiser man than I am, Mason.”

Dipper didn’t know if he agreed with that, but he leaned against his uncle’s chest with a small sigh, and finally allowed his eyes to close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like even if Dipper does understand the logic behind why they used the memory gun to get rid of Bill, he'd still be upset over it, because he loves Grunkle Stan, and he seems to understand better than Ford did why he used the portal again. And, like I said, he's been under a lot of stress lately, and it needed to blow sooner or later and create a big, ugly scene.
> 
> ...But hey, at least it ended with happy platonic cuddling, right?


End file.
